Northern California Angora Guild

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Solid vs. Broken

This is also a chestnut agouti doe except that the chestnut is combined with white, thus it's a "broken". In rabbit terminology, "broken" means any accepted color combined with white.

Broken gene is dominant of the solid gene, this gene is not in the regular ABCDE series. The ABCDE of this broken chestnut agouti is the same as the solid chestnut agouti

A-B-C-D-E

Two solid rabbits cannot produce any broken offspring while it's possible for two broken parents to produce solid offspring if both parents carry the solid gene. The broken pattern gives a clue of whether the rabbit carries the solid gene. If the white and colored are about pretty evenly represented, more than likely that the rabbit carries solid gene. If a rabbit carries two broken genes, the pattern is mostly white with very little color, in rabbit terms, it's called a "Charlie".

At the current time within the four breeds of Angora, broken pattern is only accepted in French Angora. There are breeders working on trying to get the broken pattern accepted in English Angora and Satin Angora.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Lilac Tort vs. Cream

Lilac tort English Angora doe Chu's McKenzie:

aabbC-ddee

Cream English Angora doe Chu's Zoey:

A-bbC-ddee

If one compares the genetic make up of the two colors, the only difference is in the A series. Lilac tort is a non-agouti while the cream is an agouti pattern. Visually the difference is on the face. The lilac tort has a solid lilac nose and mask while the cream has white eye circles and white half moons just under the nostrils.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Four Breeds of Angora

From left to right are Giant Angora, English Angora, French Angora and Satin Angora. These are the four Best of Breed winners in the 2013 Angora National at Reno.

From left to right are Satin Angora, Giant Angora, English Angora and French Angora. These are the four Best of Breed winners in the 2014 NCAG and WCC shows at Reno.

There are four ARBA recognized Angora breeds: in alphabetical order they are English Angora, French Angora, Giant Angora and Satin Angora. Breeders in different areas have different preferences thus it's hard to have all four breeds showing up at shows at the same time. The above two photos were taken at Reno in 2013 and 2014 where all four breeds were present. In our "normal" shows in the No. CA/NV area, the largest number usually belong to the English Angora then the next is the French Angora. The Giant Angora and the Satin Angora are rare.

There will be a treat: this coming Saturday at Stockton, all four Angora breeds will be represented in the show. Most of the English Angora and French Angora are local while the Giant Angora and the Satin Angora are coming from WA. For those who wish to view all four Angora breeds, come on over to the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds at Stockton this coming Saturday, September 20.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Delicious in Red

Betty handspun two skeins of white English Angora bulky yarn then dyed them with KoolAid. The combination is 2 packs of cherry, 2 packs of wild cherry and 2 packs of strawberry. The skeins look and smell delicious. Betty plans to make a very red hat from the yarn.

The next morning, one of the two skeins has been knitted into a red hat with some leftover. The leftover red yarn will be combined with either white or fawn English Angora yarn to make another hat. The morning light makes the color less intense.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Debbie Has a Nice Show Day

Debbie from NC shares a photo of her with her two English Angora BOB and BOS winners in the show during the weekend. One of the judges in the show is our CA judge Doug who gave Debbie's rabbits very good comments. The white doe is still a junior but with gorgeous coat, imagine what she will look like as a senior.

The judging coops in the background are similar to those in OH, there isn't any cover on the coops. They are totally different from what we are used to in CA.